8 Effective Evidence-Based Ways to Burn Body Fat

Whether to improve physical or mental health, increase energy levels, or reduce joint pain, losing body fat is a goal shared among many people.

But in today’s world of endless diets, supplements, and fitness challenges claiming to help you burn body fat, it can be difficult to cut through the noise to know what is actually evidence-based.

This article lists eight evidence-based ways to burn body fat to implement in your life today.

1. Find a Diet That You Can Stick With

There’s nothing inherently special about popular diets. They may have different “diet rules” in which they restrict or only allow certain foods, but they all typically create a deficit.

A calorie deficit occurs when you eat fewer calories than you burn. This is one component of weight loss, although other variables such as sleep habits, stress, and hormone balance influence weight management as well.

Any diet can work and help you lose body fat, but many diets tend to be difficult to follow long-term, leaving many to quit the diet and regain lost pounds. (1)

To this point, a diet is only as effective as your ability to follow it long-term.

So, find a sustainable dietary pattern based on your preference and lifestyle that focuses on balance without too much sacrifice.

2. Prioritize Sleep

Sleep is grossly underappreciated for weight loss.

Just one night of poor sleep can increase next-day hunger and cravings for sweets, which can promote weight gain over time.

In one study, 80 adults who consistently slept less than 6.5 hours per night were either instructed to maintain their current sleep habits or were counseled on good sleep habits to increase their sleep by an average of 1.2 hours per night. (2)

After two weeks, the participants who increased their sleep consumed significantly fewer calories (270 calories) compared with those who stuck with their usual 6.5 hours of sleep.

The study’s authors predicted this daily 270-calorie decrease could result in a weight loss of 26 pounds (12 kg) over three years.

3. Eat More Fiber

Fiber is a non-digestible carbohydrate and component of plant cell walls.

Due to its indigestibility, fiber promotes satiety and can help with weight loss.

Findings from multiple reviews of randomized controlled trials have shown that higher fiber intakes lead to significantly greater decreases in body weight independent of a calorie restriction. (3, 4)

Fiber also supports healthy cholesterol and blood sugar levels, bowel regularity, and has been shown to reduce the risk of several types of cancer.

The best sources of fiber include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

Fiber supplements, both in powder and pill form, are also an option, but then you miss out on the other beneficial nutrients that fiber-rich foods provide.

4. Up Your Protein

Protein has three advantages for fat loss: (5)

• It increases metabolism. Compared with carbs or fats, protein requires the most energy or calories to digest and absorb.
• It increases satiety. Protein intake helps you feel full and stay full longer, which can deter overeating.
• It supports lean body mass retention. Protein helps prevent the loss of muscle mass that generally occurs with weight loss, thereby maintaining your metabolism.

You can get protein from both animal and plant sources.

Animal-based protein sources include:

• Poultry, including eggs, chicken, turkey, quail, and duck.
• Meat, including beef, pork, goat, lamb, and venison.
• Seafood, including fish and shellfish.
• Dairy, including milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese.

Plant-based protein sources include:

• Legumes, including beans, peas, and lentils.
• Nuts and seeds.
• Dairy alternatives, namely soy milk.

5. Resistance Train

Engaging in regular, consistent exercise has a myriad of health benefits ranging from better sleep and mood to protection against several chronic diseases.

Beyond these benefits, exercise, especially resistance training or weightlifting, supports fat loss.

Your muscles are the largest site of glucose or blood sugar uptake, so training them and keeping them strong helps prevent body fat storage while also increasing metabolism. (6)

Resistance training is especially important when following a low-calorie diet for preserving muscle mass and metabolism.

Like establishing and maintaining the other healthy habits on this list, regular resistance training is also crucial for supporting weight loss maintenance and preventing weight regain.

6. Track Your Behaviors

Self-monitoring involves tracking your behaviors in connection with efforts to change or control that behavior, which tends to be negative or damaging.

Self-monitoring can be useful for many things, like improving work or academic performance. Still, it’s also very useful for promoting lifestyle changes that lead to weight loss or prevent weight gain or regain.

Food diaries, weekly weigh-ins, or taking waist and hip measurements are some useful self-monitoring techniques.

By practicing these self-monitoring techniques, you can identify actions or behaviors that are pushing you further from your health goals so you can correct them.

Keeping a food diary involves tracking what you eat and drink but also how you feel in the moment. Do you feel hungry, stressed, bored, or tired?

Certainly, the energy or calorie content of the things you eat and drink matters for fat loss, but so do the feelings associated with your choices.

For example, you may notice that you drink more soda the day after a poor night’s sleep or that you turn to ice cream when you’re stressed.

By keeping a food diary, you can become aware of these links and work to break them.

Self-weighing or taking body measurements can also be helpful for regulating your food and calorie intake based on watching your trends.

More frequent self-weighing is associated with greater weight loss and weight-loss maintenance compared with less frequent self-weighing. (7)

Contrary to some reports, a study involving 250 adults reported no evidence of disordered eating or distorted body image when using self-monitoring techniques like self-weighing and keeping a food diary. (8)

However, self-monitoring techniques may worsen and therefore be inappropriate for people with a history of these disorders.

7. Limit Ultra-Processed Foods

The rise in global obesity prevalence over the past several decades has been driven largely by changes in the food environment.

Economic and policy influences have maximized the production of cheap products like corn and soy to an increasingly industrialized food system that produces inexpensive, convenient, high-processed foods.

These ultra-processed foods contain high amounts of salt, sugar, fat, and flavor additives designed to drive appetite and consumption.

And while many people like to point to a lack of “self-control” as the reason why people become overweight and obese, the fact is that the brain is the primary organ that — below our conscious awareness — regulates body weight. (9)

In other words, even if you think you are in complete control of your food choices, there are complex hormonal, metabolic, and nervous system signals happening behind the scenes that control your food intake in response to ultra-processed foods.

As such, you should limit high-processed foods as much as possible.

Examples of ultra-processed foods include:

• Sugary drinks like soda and sweet tea.
• Diet drinks.
• Chocolate and candies.
• Ice cream and frozen desserts.
• Most fast food.
• Frozen entrees.
• Bakery products.
• Processed meats.
• Packaged snacks.
• Sweetened breakfast cereals.

8. Meal Plan and Prep

Meal planning and preparation are crucial for fat loss, especially if you have a busy schedule.

Having your meals planned and prepared eliminates decision fatigue, the idea that after making many decisions during the day, your ability to make additional decisions becomes worse.

Once you reach the point of decision fatigue, you’re more likely to make impulsive decisions, such as stopping by your favorite burger joint on the way home from work because it’s easier than spending 30–60 minutes preparing and cooking a healthy meal at home.

Therefore, it’s always smart to have healthy meals and snacks prepared so you don’t make impulsive decisions that could hinder your weight loss efforts.

You don’t have to prep all your meals, but generally, the more prep work you do, the better results you’ll have.

Indeed, meal planning has been associated with a healthier diet and reduced body weight. (10)

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

At the core, losing body fat requires that you consistently consume fewer calories than you burn.

You can do this by finding a healthy dietary pattern that works for you and your lifestyle.

Along with making changes to your diet, prioritizing sleep, increasing your fiber and protein intake, and engaging in regular resistance training are also crucial for weight loss and weight loss maintenance.

Other evidence-based ways to lose body fat include tracking your behaviors as they relate to food, limiting your intake of ultra-processed foods, and meal prepping and planning.